Washington Wizards forward Martell Webster (9) goes to the basket against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Washington. Green was charged with a foul on the play. The Warriors won 101-97. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington -- It's quite a rarity to get consecutive off days amid an arduous seven-game road trip, but that's essentially what the Warriors might have seen on their schedule.

The first day of rest came Saturday, when they were able to get away with a lackluster performance in a 101-97 victory over Washington, which stayed close but never inspired confidence in front of 15,176 fans at the Verizon Center.

The second will come Sunday in Charlotte, where the Warriors will have a day to relax and prepare for Monday's game against the Bobcats.

The Warriors (13-7) weren't very good on offense against Washington, committing 19 turnovers and falling in love with the three-point shot instead of aggressively getting into the paint.

Still, the Wizards (2-15), who opened the season with 12 consecutive losses and have played without John Wall (left knee), led only three times - by one point each time - for a combined total of 1 minute, 45 seconds.

Leading 99-96 with 4.2 seconds left, the Warriors intentionally fouled Bradley Beal before he could launch a potential game-tying three-pointer. He made the first free throw, missed the second on purpose and grabbed the rebound. But Festus Ezeli blocked Beal's putback attempt, and Carl Landry came away from the scrum with the ball and made two free throws to clinch the victory.

David Lee led the Warriors with 24 points and 17 rebounds, Klay Thompson had 23 points on 5-of-9 three-point shooting and five assists, Stephen Curry added 22 points and five assists, and Landry had 12 points off the bench.

The other six Warriors who played were 9-of-31 for 20 points, but the team outrebounded the Wizards 57-37 and limited the league's worst shooting team coming in to 42.5 percent shooting

"Defensively, we are good enough where we know when it's time to put some stops together," coach Mark Jackson said. "We did it. We rebounded and dominated the boards and got our offense going, but our defense is what carried us."

The Warriors moved to 12-1 when outrebounding the opposition, as opposed to 1-5 when they don't. They had more rebounds than their opponents 17 times all of last season.

This marks the first time the Warriors have won three games to start a road trip since 2003, when they beat Atlanta, New York and Toronto before losing to Minnesota. They need one win in their next four games to have the franchise's first winning seven-game road trip since 1970-71.

But Saturday's win was nothing like the first two on this trip. The Warriors opened with wins at Detroit and Brooklyn, averaging 106.5 points and using 20.5 fastbreak points per game and 48.5 percent shooting while committing only 10.5 turnovers a game.

Against Washington, the Warriors needed bushels of late free throws to reach the century mark, having shot 43.2 percent for the floor, scoring only 11 points in transition, and fumbling and bumbling the ball away more than they had since an overtime game at Dallas on Nov. 19.

"It was a double-edged sword," Thompson said. "It feels good to get the win, but you don't want to play that poorly. We were persistent enough to get the win, which is something, but if we didn't have all of those turnovers, we probably would have won by 10."

The Wizards led 14-13 for 19 seconds in the first quarter, 56-55 for 30 seconds in the third, and 79-78 for 56 seconds in the fourth. Jordan Crawford scored 22 points off the bench to lead the Wizards, Beal added 17, and Kevin Seraphin and Cartier Martin each added 14 points off the bench.